A MINI FR-S Story
 

Let met start of by saying that I bought my FR-S back in February, so this thread is a little delayed. Luckily I documented all my things :)


One early morning, I decided that I didn't want my MINI Cooper anymore. It was starting to show and let it be known that it is aging. I went to the local Toyota dealer and test drove an FR-S. The steering felt so similar to my MINI that I was sold after one turn.

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I ended up with a M/T 2015 Steel FR-S. I told myself that I wouldn't touch the car, not do any modifications of some sort but that didn't last long.

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My first changes to the car came about 3 months after getting it. I bought Tein S-Techs with OEM struts from a fellow member and at the same time I bought OZ Formula HLTs. My uncle came through and gave me some free Yokohama S-Drives!

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At this point the modding bug kicked in and I ended up buying another member's Valenti tail lights! I installed them in the school parking lot shortly before it started to rain.

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As ownership continued, I began to make more subtle changes to how it looks. I ended up putting Toyota badges and a front lip. Also, a sweet surprise from Scion :)

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For a while, I stopped making changes to my car and just enjoyed the fact that I had it. I ended up just going with friends to take photos as this car is very photogenic.

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I hit a patch in my life that made me want to do more than just drive a car. I decided to ride motorcycles and with that said, I spent less on the FR-S and sold my E30.

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As you can tell, I didn't really make much if any performance modifications to this car. I think my only performance modification is the track pipe I installed. It took about 15minutes but it sure made a difference on hearing the car. I thought it would be unbearably loud, but it's actually quite nice.

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I installed mud flaps as driving through the desert meant that I would get rock chips/scratches on my bumper and fenders. I decided to go with red as it complimented my gold wheels and silver paint. I also ended up going back to the OEM tail lights as I felt the Valentis were not bright enough to use safely, maybe it was just me being paranoid...

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I will keep updating :)

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10/9/15 Update - New Tires

*reserved*

what are those Valenti lights called? They the chrome?

My valentis are brighter than stock lol

They are the clear ones, I'm not sure if there's a specific name.

Maybe lol. I was following my own car and while the brake lights are okay, the signal lights could be reflected better.

Looks really clean👍🏽👍🏽


Sent from my toolbox

Like the OEM taillights much better. They seem to add more dimension to the rear end.

I like those wheels. They look very OEM-like. Can you share the specs of the wheels and tires?

Thanks man! :D

I think they have grown on me, although I do plan to get clear TOM's tail lights soon.

Wheels are OZ Racing Formula HLT - 17x9 +38 on 235/45/17s.

10/9/15 Update - New Tires!
 

After installing the mud flaps I realized that my tires were bald; pretty much down to the wire. I thought about buying some performance summer tire but to be realistic I ended up with some Kumho Ecstas.

I had 225/45 that I got for free, now I went up one size wider to 235/45 and it has the more squared look. I wanted 245/40s but it didn't clear the front strut on my car so 235s since I didn't wanna run any spacers.

So far the Kumhos had held up in the rain and canyon driving. I took it off the usual roads to snap some shots.

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Do you still have the Valenti's? I might be interested! I would be modifying them with superbright LED's and a potentiometer :)

Beautiful car by the way.

Car looks great ! Good read. Love the wheels! I really liked how the clear valentis look on silver

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900AZ using Tapatalk

Update 1/19/16 - 1/22/16: Lip, fog lights, coilovers, and exhaust
 

Finally bought some parts to install! My friends and I all have work and school at 8AM everyday so a lot of the times parts were installed in the dark :D

On Tuesday, 1/19/16 a new lip was installed on my car. The previous one was damaged from a tire flying into my car on the FWY. RIP.

On Wednesday, 1/20/16 winjet fog lights were installed and wired with the help of a couple friends. It was a lot simpler than I thought, it reminded me of wiring rally lights on my previous MINI.

On Thursday, 1/21/16 I bought one of my friend's coilovers and installed them that night.

Last, on Friday 1/22/16 my friend picked up an exhaust and it ended up on my car.

The STARKE coilovers are pretty decent for what I paid for them. I'm currently fine tuning the setup but for now it is a night and day difference from lowering springs to coilovers.

The exhaust was a Megan Racing NA type prototype. We got a good deal on it so why not and bought that as well. It's loud but not too loud and I'm happy to say that on my cruising speed 65-70mph there is no drone :)

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Great looking car! What size are the O.Z. Wheels?

Any plans on other performance mods to your car? I'm curious to see what direction you plan to take it. Looking forward to any new updates!